5:10The queen. It is unlikely that this was a wife of Belshazzar, since she was already present at the banquet (vv. 2, 3). Probably she is to be identified as the “queen mother,” one of very few women to have significant power in ancient royal courts (cf. 1 Kin. 15:3; 2 Kin. 11:1–3; 24:12; Jer. 13:18).